The present invention generally relates to a multiple section or multiple panel door and, more specifically, to a multiple section overhead door.
Overhead doors, such as residential garage doors, are generally constructed with a plurality of elongated panel sections hinged together along adjacent longitudinal edges. The door is supported for movement between open and closed positions by rollers contained with tracks mounted generally adjacent the door opening. One area which has been a concern with respect to such doors is the "pinch zone" formed at the joints between adjacent panels. As the door is raised or lowered, many joint designs allow a space to open up on the outside of the door between two adjacent panels as one of the panel angles with respect to the other. This space closes as the adjacent panels move into alignment and, if a person's finger or fingers are in the space, a potentially serious pinch can occur.
Many overhead or sectional doors have been proposed which have one type of "pinch resistant" joint construction or another. While these joint constructions may be at least partially successful at preventing injury to fingers, etc., being caught in the joint, they have also presented several drawbacks. Namely, many of the proposed and implemented pinch resistant joint constructions are complicated structures which have relatively costly components and which are rather difficult and labor intensive to manufacture and assemble.
Another drawback of overhead doors is the high cost associated with producing doors having differently designed or configured front surfaces. This is especially true of residential garage doors which can greatly affect the look of a house. Often, the garage doors of houses in large neighborhoods or developments have the same design or one of only a very limited choice of designs. This is largely due to the high cost of manufacturing and stocking overhead sectional doors having a large number of different designs from which home builders may choose when designing and building a house. That is, to reduce manufacturing costs, a large quantity of very limited styles of overhead doors are made and stocked rather than a large number of styles being manufactured in limited quantities. Home builders and other consumers in the market for a new overhead door therefore find it difficult to easily or inexpensively lend a unique look to their home by way of a garage door front having a different aesthetic look than all or most of the remaining homes in the neighborhood.
Past multiple section doors having structured joint portions along the longitudinal edges thereof must be assembled in a particular orientation. Each longitudinal edge is typically either a "female" member or a "male" member, or a dedicated rabbet joint, which will not allow one panel to be turned or flipped without also flipping the adjacent panel or panels to align the complementary joint members. This is also an impediment to providing modularity and variety to the outside surface design of the door and increases costs. Typically, the "male" portion of the joint must be oriented in an upward direction to prevent water from infiltrating the joint.
In view of the above problems and drawbacks of existing overhead doors, it would be desirable to provide an overhead door which is both pinch resistant and relatively easy to manufacture and assemble, and which is designed as part of a modular door system enabling a wide variety of unique door front styles to be assembled easily and inexpensively.